Praying For A Better Future In Syria — Without Jihadis
(ANALYSIS) In recent days, a horrifying surge of violence and bloodshed has swept across Syria, leaving a civilian death toll of nearly 1,400. Most of the victims were part of the Alawite sect, former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s religious community. A number of Christians who live in close proximity to Alawite communities have also been killed.
The recent killings — best described as massacres — were carried out by militants who opposed Assad’s government and are loyal to the new regime ruling Syria — revolutionaries were led in a “transitional capacity” by former ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed al-Shara, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jilani.
A hardened Islamist, Jilani once had a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, which has since been removed. He has repeatedly reinvented himself over many years and has now re-emerged as a reformed “man of peace.”
Tragically, peace was not on his followers’ agenda during the recent carnage.
Charmaine Hedding, president of the Jerusalem-based humanitarian organization Shai Fund, recently discussed the Syrian massacres with Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch.”
“I’ve been talking to people in Syria ever since the violence erupted until just a few hours ago,” Hedding explained. “I’ve received testimonies from family members who have survived the massacres. And what they have to say is absolutely horrific: they report that both HTS and SNA — two Turkish-based proxy militias that have taken over Syria — walked into towns where the Christians and Alawites and other minorities live. And they murdered them without mercy.”
Reportedly, the victims were almost entirely civilian. They were killed simply because they are Alawites — the religious community to which Bashar al-Assad belongs. Meanwhile, the new Syrian government is led by Sunni Muslim rebels who fought against al-Assad in a 13-year civil war.
You can read the rest of Lela Gilbert’s piece at The Washington Stand.
Lela Gilbert is Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom at Family Research Council and Fellow at Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom. She lived in Israel for over 10 years, and is the author of “Saturday People, Sunday People: Israel through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner.”